Knowledge in the Palm of your hands: PDAs in the clinical setting

Abstract

Objective: To explore the impact of hand-held computers on patient care by identifying: (i) how often clinical staff accessed resources on hand-held computers to inform their clinical decision making; (ii) Which hand-held resources were thought to be most useful in the clinical setting; (iii) the barriers to using hand-held resources to support patient care. Design: A descriptive study comparing aspects of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) resource use in two phases, between August 2002 and December 2003. There was variability in the way that resources were accessed between the two studies. Setting: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, an acute teaching hospital, and one primary care practice. Participants: A purposive sample of 14 clinical and librarian staff participated in phase one and 14 in phase two of the study. Participants consisted of consultants, nurses, pharmacist, junior doctors, clinical librarians, and a general practitioner. Main outcome measures: Baseline Data Questionnaire to identify the participants' level of knowledge and use of hand-helds on entering the study. End-of-phase questionnaire with self-reported measures of use of the hand-held and PDA resources during the study. Results: All of the participants used hand-helds in their clinical setting to support evidence-based practice and education, but with varying frequency. More staff reported using the hand-held to answer specific patient questions in phase two than phase one of the study. UK resources were preferred to American resources. The 'plug-in and go' method using Secure Digital (SD) cards was preferred to downloading resources from the Internet. Conclusions: Hand-held technology is emerging as an effective clinical tool to aid evidence-based practice and support the educational needs of clinical staff. The hand-held can provide a critical mass of information that is relevant, quickly accessible and in a coherent format: delivering clinical information at the point of need with a resulting benefit to patient safety.

Personal digital assistant usage among undergraduate medical students: exploring trends, barriers, and the advent of smartphones

“…These devices, also known as handhelds, allow health professionals to find answers to clinical questions while at the patient's bedside, resulting in better patient safety and clinical outcomes [3]. However, it has been found that PDA users, especially medical students, often struggle to use these tools to their full potential [4][5][6][7].…”

Development of an E-learning Resource on Mobile Devices for Kinesiology: A Pilot Study

“…All students were beginners at elearning on mobile devices. According to previous studies 4,[6][7][8][9][10] , it has been reported that there are barriers to elearning on mobile devices for beginners: e.g. lack of time to learn how to use the resource, difficulties installing software applications and lack of knowledge about handling mobile devices.…”

“…They have improved battery life, sufficient capacity to store information, and wireless web access 3,4) . Compared with traditional personal computers, the characteristics of mobile devices allow users to access information conveniently and without the constraints of time and place 6) . In this paper, we consider how mobile devices can enhance opportunities for self-learning, especially from the standpoint of convenient access to information.…”

Health Sciences Librarians in Academic Libraries: A Brief Review of Their Developing Role

“…In some settings librarians, sometimes called informationists in this context, are becoming part of the clinical team, available to provide information on the ward (Davidoff and Florance 2000;Rankin, Canto, and Grefsheim 2008). In other cases, library services provide information directly to clinicians via mobile devices like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) (Honeybourne, Sutton, and Ward 2006;Burnette and Dorsch 2006). Increasingly, they respond directly not only to professionals but also to the needs of patients and the general public (Stahl 2001).…”